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The Top 3 Dishwashing Blunders Of All Time

March 12, 2014

You had this nice, expensive, elegant set of chinaware in your kitchen. One evening, after a satisfying dinner with family and relatives, you started cleaning the dining table, took out the plates to the sink, and realised the messy stockpile of utensils and the whole dishevelled kitchen might take the whole night to clean.

Then you started carelessly stuffing dishes into your dishwasher, trying to get everything done as fast as you could. After running for a minute or two, you heard shards of precious china cracking and breaking to pieces inside your mighty, overloaded dishwasher.

Putting the wrong dishes into the dishwashing machine is one of the usual dishwashing blunders people commit, especially during a busy time in the kitchen. However, these errors can be pretty destructive (exactly like the stated example) not just to your kitchen utensils and elegant dinnerware sets, but also to you and the whole kitchen. It is important to be mindful and careful in washing dishes, no matter how simple you think such household chore is. It’s not really as easy as you think, which is why the following errors, on top of the one mentioned above, often occur.

Go over the following list and see if you’ve been guilty of these mistakes, so you can start refining your ways.

Washing dishes by hand

You may be conserving energy by using your bare hands in washing dishes. That would truly cut down your utility bills. Nonetheless, you’re putting yourself at risk for injuries and infections by doing so, even if you use gloves.

Dirty dishes and the water where you soak them in harbour millions of bacteria that can infect an open wound or cause unpleasant skin allergies and diseases you certainly don’t want to acquire. You might also hurt yourself with sharp objects, like knives and possible chipped-off edges of your dinner plates.

Moreover, you can’t thoroughly clean dishes in a sink with just your hands. Kelly Reynolds, an environmental health professor at the University of Arizona stated that to really clean dishes and kill most of the bacteria thriving in them, water temperature must reach 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Try washing dishes by hand with a water temperature this high. Even with hand gloves, it’s just not plausible. In a dishwasher though, this high temperature is easily reached, killing most of the bacteria and cleaning your dishes thoroughly.

Overloading the dishwasher and improper loading of dishes

The first few statements in this article describe what can happen if you put the wrong stuff in the dishwashing machine, which can result to the destruction of a prized chinaware you may have at home. You’ll know what dishes to put or NOT to put in the dishwasher by carefully reading the instruction manual and by using a bit of common sense.

Aside from sorting out what’s okay and not okay, another important thing to remember is to “avoid overcrowding.” Ever experienced chewing more food than your mouth can contain? That’s how a dishwasher would feel if you overload it. Aside from the fact that this erroneous practice can ruin your precious dinnerware sets and block the water jets inside that spray water to clean the dishes thoroughly, your dishwasher might break down and eventually become unusable.

Improper loading of dishes can gravely affect your machine’s efficiency. Arrange the dishes well and place them in their proper slots.

Not cleaning the dishwasher

Dishwashers can effectively clean dirty dishes. Unfortunately they can’t do self-cleaning. Maintain the cleanliness of your dishwasher to also ensure its optimum functionality. It is best to read the manufacturer’s manual about the proper way of cleaning the machine to avoid ruining it instead and hurting yourself in the process. Keep your machine sanitary, to maintain its efficiency.

Debra Wright is a creative and innovative blogger and online marketing specialist. She uses her wordsmith skills to share her ideas, thoughts, and tips to other people about topics that fascinate her, such as home improvement. Follow Debra on twitter @debrawrites…